The global fruit trade show FRUIT LOGISTICA took place on February 6-8, 2019 in Berlin

FRUIT LOGISTICA, the leading global trade fair for the fresh fruit and vegetable business, has published a new trend report that scrutinizes the role of fresh produce in the grocery retail business. Created by leading global management consultancy Oliver Wyman and first published at Fruitnet World of Fresh Ideas, “Surprises in Store” offers new insights into how a number of factors are influencing consumer demand.

In an increasingly competitive global grocery market, retailers will be looking to the fruit and vegetable business more and more for ideas on how to boost their sales, improve consumer experience in their stores and distinguish their overall offer.

In many areas, this will translate into a higher demand for better-tasting products that can command a better price, but in other markets the affordability of quality fresh produce may well be a more influential deciding factor.

These are just some of the key findings published in the latest annual trend report from the leading exhibition for the global fruit trade FRUIT LOGISTICA, which takes place from February 6-8, 2019 in Berlin.

“The fact that fresh produce plays a critical role in retail should not come as a surprise to anyone in the industry,” says Alexander Pöhl, one of the report’s lead authors. Rainer Münch, Partner at Oliver Wyman, adds: “What might not be so readily apparent, however, is just how quickly the market for fresh produce is changing. Customers now expect good quality fresh produce in every store. As a result, while grocery retail is seeking to use fresh produce to achieve a market advantage, doing so is becoming more and more challenging.”

The report is available as a free download from the FRUIT LOGISTICA website, and offers fresh insight into how a number of factors are influencing consumer demand, including health, convenience, emotion, ethics, the environment, provenance, seasonality, affordability, visual merchandising and quality.

Surprises in Store is based on one of the most in-depth fresh produce consumer surveys ever conducted, research that involved almost 7,000 consumers in 14 different markets across Europe and North America.